Jack was a normal 13 year old boy looking forward to his upcoming 14th birthday. Until he starts going through some changes – greater strength, greater speed, greater fighting skills, it’s like a super hero’s origin story. Though becoming a hero isn’t nearly as fun as he expected it to be, not when people are frightened of the new, different you.Far less appealing are the monsters, the Creach. Disguised among humanity, they’re watching him and beginning to show themselves to prepare for his 14th birthday. They time when he comes of age in the monster world – and becomes fair game to hunt.Suddenly he’s on the run, backed up by hunters he knows nothing about, learning new, shocking things about his family history, finding out the family he does know are completely different from what he imagined and discovering that so many of the people around him were secretly monsters, watching him, waiting for their chance. This book has a rather unique writing style – and I think it’s going to be a “love it or hate it” moment. It’s written as if the protagonist were remembering his story. It’s also written as if he is presenting a warning/guide to other hunters: Jack is warning the reader against reading the book, giving hints and tips on how to kill various monsters, little mini-lectures as if an experienced hunter were recounting an experience to a new hunter. It’s something that is maintained even on the author’s website (with a password found in the book to allow real hunters in without the “creach”) It’s an interesting and certainly unique style and has a very strong spoken word feel to it as well. You’re either going to love its unique feel, or you’re going to find it frustrating.The plot itself is very action orientated – and the action is done well. We have monsters hunting the newly of-age monster hunter just as his physical abilities kick inI can’t say I like how the story came together – I think the big bad was defeated too easily and rather anti-climactically, I think Jack had a massive about-face of personality and character pretty close to the end. I’ve seen a lot more extreme a 180 character turns and it had some justification, but this felt very abrupt. It almost felt like the author wanted to hurry the story along or was afraid of losung momentum. I also found the villains a little cartoony – not necessarily in a bad way; it had a cheesy style that was fun in its own right.Read More
